As a net-debt province, Quebec lives beyond its means.
Quebec has a problem. It has a generous welfare and social apparatus it really can't afford. Everyone knows this and most agree it's time to start tackling the debt which is in the neighborhood of 50% of its GDP. If Quebec were to be "officially recognized" as an independent state, it wouldn't even have a chance. It would sink.
Quebec does have some kind of a plan in place in the form of the 'Generation Fund' and 'Plan Nord' but that won't be enough. The former won't save enough by 2025 and the latter is a resource economic plan. Neither of which addresses the future of Quebec in what I think is the future: Technology.
By the way, the Liberal government campaigned on (modest) tuition hikes as one place to start. The reaction has been student protesting in the streets. Not just campuses, but on the streets. A feature mostly unique to Quebec.
What makes these excesses worse is Quebec's parochial mind set. Whatever advantages it may possess is squandered by the fact it insists (obsesses) on defining itself along linguistic lines. It doesn't view its citizens as assets; it views them as cultural pawns. The province is not creating an economic environment that encourages entrepreneurs. I don't even think it can (as long as the province continues to empower the sort of people that join the OLF this province will never maximize its potential. Ever) until it retires the antiquated 19th century romantic nationalist ideals.
Quebec, when it comes to political ideas is a typewriter in a world of evolving laptops.
This is the post-technological, post-internet age. The next minds of the succeeding generations will be focused on far grander projects like Project Glass, and reinvigorating space exploration. Implicit in social human progress is the acceptance of diversity and need not be a cornerstone of public policy for it will only be a drag on the new humanist approach ushered in.
This is why Quebec won't be a participant in this new age. It would prefer to figure out ways to make the internet French rather than create the next great engineering mind regardless of language.
The men and women, furthermore, who will form our next wealthy entrepreneurial class on the continent will be less sympathetic to the grand liberal experiment of the 20th century. They will reintroduce, and this is just my impression reading their thoughts and ideas on education, science, and business, the concept of the sovereign mind reconfiguring how we approach those subjects.
Quebec will benefit but will it be an active player contributing talent?
Right now, Alberta is showing signs of being the one place where cash can be converted into someone trying to, say, launch a rocket into space. Quebec will be too busy negotiating with SAQ unions.
This is why it is crucial the government has limited power when it comes to the internet. We need to usher in a whole new set of ideas/
Hopefully, this will be the next great leap forward.
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